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Four-day school week discussed at board meeting

July 20, 2005

By Martha Frost: Quay County Sun

Although the four-day school week may be new to Tucumcari, Logan Public Schools Superintendent Carolyn Franklin was at the Monday’s school board meeting to tell the Tucumcari all about it.
Franklin has experienced the shortened week at Dora, San Jon, and Logan as a parent, teacher, coach, and administrator. According to Franklin, Cimmaron and Dora led the trend in New Mexico to have classes only four days a week back in the 1970s when an oil crisis forced small schools to look at their budgets and find a way to reduce cost per student
What are the advantages of the four-day week besides cost savings for fuel, transportation, food, and personnel?
“Our four-day week matches the schedule of Clovis Community College for students who are enrolled concurrently,” Franklin said. Students can take seven 60-minute classes, which works better for teachers and students than 45-minute classes, she said.
“We can schedule more extra-curricular activities on Fridays,” Franklin said.
The four-day school week enables some of the older Logan students to have part-time jobs. There is an extra day for detention, if needed, and janitors can work undisturbed that day because janitors and administrators still work on Fridays, Franklin said.
“We still have to meet federal and state mandates,” she said, “and our students’ test scores have improved or stayed the same — although I wouldn’t expect them to go down if we returned to a five-day schedule.”
Tucumcari School Superintendent William Reents reported to the board what his students can expect to be doing on Fridays when there is no school that day.
Reents said he had discussed Friday tutoring sessions with Christine Daugherty and Beth Sisneros from Mesalands Community College’s Educational Services Center and Success Center. He also told the board the Public Education Department was considering allowing Title I funds to be used for a special reading program for qualifying students on Fridays.